


she's whole, yet she always finds a missing piece

by eraserheadbaby



Category: Persona 2
Genre: F/F, Obsessive Behavior, Self-Esteem Issues, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 22:33:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20786135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eraserheadbaby/pseuds/eraserheadbaby
Summary: As long as she has her Sister, Noriko can't enjoy anything, if it's for her alone.





	she's whole, yet she always finds a missing piece

Noriko opens the door to the Principal's office, probably less tactfully than necessary. After all, most students would be more nervous when called by the Principal for the first time, wouldn't they?

She tries to cover up her initial audacity by greeting the Principal and getting seated in his office with as much propriety as she can muster. The Principal assures her that she hasn't done anything wrong (Does she look anxious? She isn't. At all. Should she be?) and explains that it was her track Coach that asked him to call her here. Apparently, he was so worried about her lack of enthusiasm in her training lately that he felt it wouldn't be enough if only he spoke to her.

And that's where Noriko tunes out.

This is ridiculous! Why is the track team wasting time on her, when they've lost someone as indispensable as Sis?

Yes, Yoshizaka Anna- now that's someone worth spending time on. She and the running field went hand in hand, one and the same. It's a mandatory skill of any runner to limit their consciousness to their race and erase everything else around them. But Yoshizaka had far exceeded that. She didn't just forget the world around her- she made the world forget about anything else besides her course. When she ran, all watching eyes were moving with her, from the bang of the start to the last step on the finishing line.

Noriko can't hope to achieve even a glint of that brilliance. And still, it's her that has a place in the track team, while Yoshizaka had to give up everything, with no one giving her any more chances. The guilt is so overwhelming that Noriko feels sick inside her own skin. It bites her all over, smearing her insides to the point that even calling Yoshizaka her Sister sounds like heresy, like invasion of an all too unreachable privacy.

(But she can't drop the familial nickname, no matter what. Yoshizaka will always be her big sister, and just the idea of losing that one day is a knot in her chest that refuses to loosen up.)

Some static distorts the already anxious waves of her thoughts. Oh, right- the Principal. Tuning in to the voice in front of her again, Noriko hears about how much potential she has, how her Coach has seen it since day one, how she can't give up the hard work she's devoted herself to all these years.

She remembers hearing things like this before. But they resonate less like memories and more like stills from a movie. Her Coach approaching her on one of the first training sessions and claiming he already has high hopes for her. Her teammates patting her on the back and showering her with compliments, in the sweet celebration of a victory. Her parents, munching their dinner, while casually asking her if she's considered pursuing a career as an athlete.

Maybe this could all lead somewhere. Noriko could continue training with the same hectic pace, could start spending even more time in the track team. She could participate in more school competitions. She could become relevant enough to join the national team. She could run in every kind of track she wanted, travel the world, collect trophies.

This yet amorphous future is what made her sign up for the track team from the first day she came to this school. This is what she's wanted all along, and there's a way to make it true. So why-

Why does she not feel happy?

Maybe because you can't be happy with something that isn't for you, human beings are selfish like that and she's no exception. The action, the power, the glory- none of it belongs to her. It's not for people who are simply good at what they do. The true worthy ones are the people who were born for what they do.

(People like Yoshizaka Anna.)

This is all true, of course, and Noriko could leave it at that. Except there's also a hypothesis that's hanging on her mind: Let's say Noriko achieves the dream. She stays in the track team, competes in many tournaments, goes professional, wins cups and medals.

Where is her Sister in all of this?

The dream that ruled her childhood, that seems like the final destination in a path she's walked down for years already. But when she started the walk, she didn't know Yoshizaka. Now she does, and she's walked alongside her some very important miles. If she's not there at the end, reaching it isn't a dream come true, it's just a flavorless coincidence.

As long as she has her Sister, Noriko can't enjoy anything, if it's for her alone.

At some random point in time, Noriko realizes the Principal has finished speaking. She tells him what he wants to hear without meaning a word of it, and leaves the office as rudely as she entered. Who cares- she has someone to look for.

**Author's Note:**

> obv there arent many scenes to judge from, but norikos fixation w anna must rly affect her self image and the way she treats her own affairs...or its just me always finding a way to make my ships as messed up as possible lol


End file.
